compl. nos. ques.

hi... there has been a question which always crosses my mind whenever i see complex numbers...we say..|x| is defined as squareroot(x^2)so,why do we not write |i| as i... (squareroot(i^2)=i)? (note that 'i' means iota)now u'll say that modulus function has also been defined as distance of the argument(i, in this case) from the origin..., which u say is i unit from the origin.. but why can't be the distance of a point from the origin be 'i'(iota) units ???? whats wrong with it ???

let me frame an example here..u draw a graph with Y-axis scale as 1 unit = 3... then in reference to this graph, do we write |3|=1 (as distance from origin=1 unit) ????? the answer is a no.... then why cant we treat iota in the same way?? here also we are defining 1 unit of y-axis as 'i'....